Apparatus, system and method for managing airspace for unmanned aerial vehicles

ABSTRACT

An apparatus, system and method for managing airspace for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The apparatus, system and method may include a platform comprising at least records of certified administratively acceptable requestors of restricted use of the airspace for UAVs, a plurality of airspace management rules for UAVs, and a broadcaster for providing notifications over at least one telecommunications network; and a plurality of applications, each instantiated by a processor on one of a plurality of corresponded devices by non-transitory computing code, wherein the plurality of corresponded devices comprises at least a plurality of mobile devices. A first of the plurality of applications may be capable of receiving the restricted UAV use request from a requestor within a physical area of the restricted UAV use request, and of forwarding the restricted UAV use request and an identification of the requestor to the platform over the at least one telecommunications network.

BACKGROUND Field of the Disclosure

The present disclosure relates to airspace for flying vehicles, and,more specifically, to an apparatus, system and method for managingairspace for unmanned aerial vehicles.

Description of the Background

Few technologies today command as much interest and excitement asdrones, also referred to as small-unmanned aerial vehicles (sUAV). ThesesUAVs are a subset of a broader category of technologies referred to asunmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). UAVs do offer significant value in theentertainment and leisure industry, and that significant value haslargely led to aforementioned interest and excitement around the UAVindustry, but UAVs also provide an emerging economic opportunity. Forexample, it has been proposed that UAV use be further expanded intocommercial services, such as safety and security, product delivery, realestate and surveys, and so on.

Of course, in some commercial (and governmental) contexts outside ofentertainment and leisure, the use of UAVs is not new. For example,drones equipped with cameras and sensor payloads have been used bymilitary and border control agencies for decades to improve situationalawareness. Further, UAVs are presently employed as “eyes-in-the-sky” forlaw enforcement and first responders. The increased use of UAVs in bothof these areas is part of the expansion in UAV usage referenced above.

While the growth in applications for UAVs presents economic opportunity,it also presents significant challenges, such as to first responders,safety and security personnel, and other aircraft such as may bemonitored by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). By way ofexample, there is no system in place presently to locally and/or in realtime manage airspace for UAVs. Because of this, there may be detrimentalimpact on aircraft having FAA approved flight plans, and on firstresponder activity, stemming from unmanaged UAV operation.

For example, UAVs have already interfered with firefighting planesbattling forest and wild fires. UAVs in a fire context can causeoperations delays, which can endanger lives. More particularly, if thereis a chance of a collision with a UAV, firefighting planes andhelicopters must be grounded to avoid loss of life and/or severeequipment damage. For these and other reasons, the use of UAVs, and moreparticularly the lack of management of airspace for UAVs overfire-ravaged areas, is a cause of increased damage to property andlives.

In a law enforcement context, the unmanaged use of UAVs can degradeemergency response times, such as due to forcing law enforcementvehicles from the air, and thus may recklessly endanger the public. Forexample, authorized aircraft, for safety reasons, must hold if there areunauthorized UAVs in the subject airspace. This slows emergency responsetimes, and increases response costs in that the authorized aircraft mustsit idle while waiting for clearance to enter the subject airspace,after expenditure of the time and expense to prepare the authorizedaircraft for the emergency response. Emergency response costs arefurther increased by the need to bring in additional resources, beyondthe typical emergency response resources, in an emergency setting sothat those additional resources can clear the airspace for the emergencyresponse resources.

Moreover, the use of UAVs in airspace over crime and search scenes canimpede criminal investigations and compromise crime scene integrity. Forsearch and rescue operations, private UAVs can create airspace conflict,which minimizes the positive impact of a search and rescue response.This airspace conflict may cause varying degrees of adverseconsequences, ranging from limitations on available search/rescue andcrime investigation resources, to suspension of search/rescue and crimescene operations, to urgent collision-avoidance in order to prevent lossof life, equipment damage, or other terrible consequences.

Yet further, the use of UAVs can conflict with the needs of theDepartments of Defense and Homeland Security, which may impact thesafety of the nation and its citizens. For example, an UAV recentlycollided with a Black Hawk helicopter over Staten Island, N.Y., severelydamaging the helicopter and ending its flight mission. UAVs have crashedinto power plants, causing heightened security alerts, and significantexpenditures of taxpayer dollars to assess whether such crashes areintentional. Thus, the misuse of UAVs can cause false alarms orheightened national or local security alerts, even if the misuse isactually innocent.

Although the FAA has a registration process for airspace (as do somelocal authorities and agencies), typically the approval process torestrict airspace takes 24 hours or more. Because of the speed of thisapproval process, or more pointedly the lack of speed, it is nearlyimpossible to tell authorized aircraft from authorized aircraft in arestricted airspace in real time. It is also difficult if not impossibleto punish unauthorized aircraft, if for no other reason than the urgencytypically required in an emergency circumstance to restrict airspace isnot met by the current airspace restriction request processes, and assuch, by the time an airspace restriction request can be granted in thecurrent processes, the need to restrict the airspace has often passed.

Accordingly, there is a need to help protect the police, fire, emergencymedical services, and other public safety personnel who put themselvesin danger to protect the communities they serve, at least by providingtraffic management for UAVs that might otherwise interfere with the workof public safety personnel. Further, there is a need to enhance publicsafety and minimize the cost of public safety through the providing oftraffic management for UAVs.

SUMMARY

The disclosure includes at least an apparatus, system and method formanaging airspace for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The apparatus,system and method may include a platform comprising at least records ofcertified administratively acceptable requestors of restricted use ofthe airspace for UAVs, a plurality of airspace management rules forUAVs, and a broadcaster for providing notifications over at least onetelecommunications network; and a plurality of applications, eachinstantiated by a processor on one of a plurality of correspondeddevices by non-transitory computing code, wherein the plurality ofcorresponded devices comprises at least a plurality of mobile devices. Afirst of the plurality of applications may be capable of receiving therestricted UAV use request from a requestor within a physical area ofthe restricted UAV use request, and of forwarding the restricted UAV userequest and an identification of the requestor to the platform over theat least one telecommunications network. Responsive to the restricteduse request deemed to be one of the administratively acceptablerequestor by the platform based on a comparison of the identification tothe records, the platform broadcasts a notification of the restrictedUAV use in accordance with the plurality of airspace management rules.

The notification may additionally be broadcast by the platform to atleast one peered application. The peered application may comprise amanned aircraft airspace management application.

Each of the plurality of applications may be capable of accepting a UAVflight plan and forwarding the received UAV flight plan to the platform.The plurality of airspace management rules may further comprise flightplan approval and deconfliction rules, and the UAV flight plan may beapproved by the platform according to a comparison of the UAV flightplan to the flight plan approval rules.

Upon violation of the notification by at least one non-conforming UAV,the platform may further be capable of comparing the records to anidentification of the non-conforming UAV and broadcasting theidentification of the non-conforming user to at least one of theplurality of applications. The at least one of the applications thatreceives the non-conforming user may be corresponded to law enforcement.

Thus, the disclosed embodiments provide an apparatus, system, and methodto help protect the police, fire, emergency medical services, and otherpublic safety personnel who put themselves in danger to protect thecommunities they serve, at least by providing traffic management forUAVs that might otherwise interfere with the work of public safetypersonnel. Further, the disclosed embodiments enhance public safety anddecrease the cost of public safety through the providing of trafficmanagement for UAVs

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The disclosed non-limiting embodiments are discussed in relation to thedrawings appended hereto and forming part hereof, wherein like numeralsmay indicate like elements, and in which:

FIG. 1 is an illustration of a system for airspace management;

FIG. 2 is an illustration of a platform and applications for airspacemanagement;

FIGS. 3A-3E are illustrations of an application user interface forairspace management; and

FIG. 4 is an illustration of a method for airspace management.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The figures and descriptions provided herein may have been simplified toillustrate aspects that are relevant for a clear understanding of theherein described apparatuses, systems, and methods, while eliminating,for the purpose of clarity and/or brevity, other aspects that may befound in typical similar devices, systems, and methods. Those ofordinary skill may thus recognize that other elements and/or operationsmay be desirable and/or necessary to implement the devices, systems, andmethods described herein. But because such elements and operations areknown in the art, and because they do not facilitate a betterunderstanding of the present disclosure, for the sake of clarity and/orbrevity a discussion of such elements and operations may not be providedherein. However, the present disclosure is deemed to neverthelessinclude all such elements, variations, and modifications to thedescribed aspects that would be known to those of ordinary skill in theart in light of the instant disclosure.

Embodiments are provided throughout so that this disclosure issufficiently thorough and fully conveys the scope of the disclosedembodiments to those who are skilled in the art. Numerous specificdetails are set forth, such as examples of specific components, devices,and methods, to provide a thorough understanding of embodiments of thepresent disclosure. Nevertheless, it will be apparent to those skilledin the art that certain specific disclosed details need not be employed,and that embodiments may thus be embodied in different forms. As such,the embodiments conveyed should not be construed to limit the scope ofthe disclosure.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing theparticular example embodiments set forth only and is not intended to belimiting. For example, as used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and“the” may be intended to include the plural forms as well, unless thecontext clearly indicates otherwise. Further, the terms “comprises,”“comprising,” “including,” and “having,” are inclusive and therefore mayindicate the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations,elements, and/or components, and, in any event, do not preclude thepresence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps,operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.

Although the terms first, second, third, etc., may be used herein todescribe various elements, components, steps, regions, layers and/orsections, these elements, components, steps, regions, layers and/orsections should not be deemed to be limited by these terms. These termsmay be only used to distinguish one element, component, step, region,layer or section from another element, component, step, region, layer orsection, unless an indication is given to the contrary. Thus, terms suchas “first,” “second,” and other numerical terms when used herein do notimply a sequence or order unless explicitly stated or clearly indicatedby the context. Thus, a first element, component, step, region, layer orsection discussed below could be termed a second element, component,step, region, layer or section without departing from the teachings ofthe exemplary embodiments.

Correspondingly and notwithstanding the use of terms such as “first” or“second” in association therewith, it should be noted that the methodsteps, processes, and operations described herein are not to beconstrued as necessarily requiring their performance in the particularorder discussed or illustrated, unless specifically identified as anecessary order of performance. It is also to be understood thatadditional or alternative steps may be employed.

Processor-implemented modules, engines, applications, systems andmethods of use are disclosed herein that may provide networked access toa plurality of types of digital content, including but not limited tovideo, image, text, audio, data, metadata, algorithms, interactive anddocument content, which may track, deliver, manipulate, transform andreport the accessed digital content. Described embodiments of thesemodules, engines, applications, systems and methods are intended to beexemplary and not limiting. As such, it is contemplated that the hereindescribed apparatuses, systems and methods may be adapted and may beextended to provide enhancements and/or additions to the exemplarymodules, engines, applications, systems and methods described, and thedisclosure is thus intended to include all such extensions.

It should also be understood that the terms “platform”, “application”,“module” and “engine”, as used herein, do not limit the functionality toparticular physical modules, but may include any number oftangibly-embodied software and/or hardware components having atransformative effect on at least a portion of a disclosed system andits data. In general, a computer program product in accordance withsoftware-related embodiments may comprise a tangible computer usablemedium (e.g., standard RAM, ROM, EEPROM, an optical disc, a USB drive,or the like) having computer-readable program code embodied therein,wherein the computer-readable program code is adapted to be instantiatedor otherwise executed by a processor (which may work in connection withan operating system) to implement the one or more systems, functions andmethods as described herein. In this regard, the disclosed software maybe implemented in any desired language, and may be implemented asmachine code, assembly code, byte code, interpretable source code, orthe like (e.g., via C, C++, C#, Java, Actionscript, Objective-C,Javascript, CSS, XML, etc.), unless noted otherwise and by way ofnon-limiting example.

The embodiments provide improved public safety, at least by providingthe localized, real-time dynamic airspace management required for theexpected explosive growth in the use of UAVs. The embodiments mayprovide at least a local airspace management and certification systemfor UAVs. The management and certification system may be or include anintegrated, certifiable smartphone-based application. The system mayoffer first responders and similar personnel a local or system-wide,real-time communication to proactively clear the air of UAVs, and/or tomake the presence of UAVs in an airspace criminal conduct.

More particularly, incident commanders, such as first responder on-sitecoordinators, are provided the capability in some embodiments todynamically manage local airspace for UAVs in real time from on-site.The dynamic UAV airspace management systems and methods disclosedoperate in support of federal and state laws, and applicable rules,regulations and policies, such as those provided by the FAA.

The systems and methods herein provide system-wide or localizednotifications, such as uniform notifications, from and to lawenforcement and emergency respondents and responder agencies, the FAAand other relevant federal agencies, airport towers and other relevantgroups or organizations, regarding certified air space managementrequests. That is, as illustrated in the system 100 of FIG. 1, anairspace management (i.e., a restriction) request 102 may be input by anauthorized party 104, along with a situs and/or a radius 106 to whichthe restriction request 102 is applicable. As used herein, it will beappreciated that a request 102 reviewed for grantability may alsoinclude the cancellation of a previously granted restriction, by way ofnon-limiting example.

If the request 102 stems from an unauthorized party, it may be denied.Further, the system 100, and more particularly the application 101distributed across users within the system 100, may correspond aparticular user 104 a to a limited geography 106 a, i.e., a particularsitus and/or a radius, to which that user's request 102 may beauthorized to extend. And, if a request 102 is made outside of thatauthorized area, it, too, may be denied by system 100. For example, arequest from the FAA, the Department of Defense, or similar U.S.national or international agency or body, may have a broad allowablegeographic application, such as the entire Eastern US seaboard, while aNew York Police Department (NYPD) restriction request may only haveallowability within the boroughs of New York City. Needless to say, auser may make a restriction request 102 regarding all or a subset ofthat user's authorized restriction geography, such as aborough-by-borough request in the foregoing example of the NYPD.

The multi-tenant application 101 may, such as from a central system hubhaving a platform 202 as discussed herein, receive authorization of arequest 102 from a certified user 104 in real time, and/or may receive adistributed, such as via broadcast 112 to dedicated applications 101and/or accepting peer applications 224, notification 112 a for UAVoperators regarding the granted restriction 102. Of course,notifications 112 a may be distributed system wide, or, such as based onthe nature of the restriction request 102, such as a request made by orfor a UAV of a certain type, made by or for a UAV generally operated orauthorized to operate only in a certain geography, or the like,notifications 112 a may be distributed only to certain users or within acertain locale as discerned by platform 202. It should be noted that, asused herein, UAVs operated autonomously may automatically honor agranted restriction request 102, and may thus fall within the definitionof a user or operator as those terms are used herein.

Thus, non-conforming UAVs subject to the notification 112 a may bereadily identified, such as visually or electronically (such as inembodiments that have real-time activity tracking, such asin-application or via peer application, as discussed below), forappropriate action. For example, a UAV active in a restricted zone butsubject to an exclusion notification may acceptably be “shot down”, orhave its owner/operator subjected to criminal penalties. Moreover, inembodiments having activity tracking for all registered UAVs, theapplication 101 may identify the offending UAV and/or its operator tothe requesting user and/or to peers using the same or a peer distributedapplication 101, 224. Accordingly, a “warning” notification 112 b may ormay not be sent in-application, such as directly to the identifiedoffending operator, that operation of the non-conforming UAV must ceaseimmediately, prior to the undertaking of any action against thenon-conforming UAV or its operator.

The architecture of the system 100 may preferably be highly secure. Thislevel of security may be necessary, at least so that onlyadministratively acceptable personnel may receive grants of restrictionrequests. Accordingly, the architectural security must carry across allcommunications networks through which communications must pass,including at least the cellular and packet-switched, i.e., the Internet,networks. As such, the architecture discussed throughout may becompliant with applicable standards, such as those of the NationalInstitute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

That is, only administratively acceptable personnel, such as the firstresponders, EMTs, or government agencies referenced throughout, shouldhave the requisite access to make granted restriction requests via anyof various devices, including laptop and desktop computers, agencyservers, and particularly mobile devices, such as smartphones.Smartphone access using the disclosed application 101 may beparticularly necessary to secure, at least because the likelihood isthat first responders on site at an occurrence may need to make thedecision to restrict the airspace in real time at the occurrence, andthus using a mobile device, but communications in such a circumstancemay also be particularly difficult to secure.

As discussed, the architecture discussed herein may be a “hub andspokes”, i.e., a multi-tenant, architecture 200 in which theapplications 101 referenced in FIG. 1 are associated with a centralplatform 202, such as that illustrated in FIG. 2. As illustrated, aplatform 202 in accordance with the embodiments may be centrallylocated, such as via cloud 242 a accessibility, with respect toapplications 101 a, 101 b, 101 c on one or more remote clients, such asmobile device clients. That is, in some embodiments, the platform 202may allow for “thin client” operation of the remote applications 101 a,101 b, 101 c running on devices, although it will be understood that theapplications may alternatively run as “thick clients”, i.e., may includeat least some capability to communicate peer-to-peer and provide some orall of the decision-making and broadcast processes disclosed hereinthroughout as resident at the platform 202, such as for redundancypurposes in the event of a failure of the network to allow connection ofthe applications 101 to the platform 202.

The platform 202 may also include or communicate with, such as via thecloud 204 and/or one or more of various available networks, one or morerecords, such as database(s) 220, that include at least identificationof certified and/or registered UAVs/operators. That is, the database 220may include either only the certifications/certification levels ofUAVs/operators using the applications 101 a, 101 b, 101 c, or mayinclude a registration listing of all UAVs registered across not onlyapplications 101 a, 101 b, 101 c, and/or may also include registrationslistings (or communicative association with an external system housingsuch listings) of UAVs registered on peer applications 224, 226.

Accordingly, in embodiments, the platform 202 of architecture 200 mayprovide traffic management for UAVs, either locally or system-wide (suchas nationally), with uniform notifications 112 a across applications 101a, 101 b, 101 c and/or peer applications 224, 226. The platform 202 maythus have accessible thereto one or more types of certificationinformation in database 220, such as may reside at or have been enteredinto the applications 101 a, 101 b, 101 c, to allow certification of anacceptable restriction request. Of course, particularly in embodimentsin which UAVs are electronically identifiable (as discussed herein), theplatform 202 may additionally allow for a certification notification 112a of which UAVs are authorized for the subject airspace if therestriction is granted. Such an authorization (rather than anexclusionary) notification 112 a may, in turn, be relayed to the remoteapplications 101 a, 101 b, 101 c correspondent to authorized operatorsand/or UAVs.

Accordingly, authorizations and notifications 112 may vary in theembodiments. For example, an authorization notification 112 may clearthe identified airspace of all UAVs. Alternatively, an authorizationnotification 112 may clear the identified airspace of only certain UAVs.Alternatively, an authorization notification 112 may affirmatively allowonly UAVs having certain affiliation or identification, such only thoseassociated with first responders, access to the restricted airspace.Notifications 112 may be exclusionary or inclusionary, as referencedabove. Of additional note, certain agency UAV operators may identify,such as in-application 101 a communicative with the platform 202,“associated” UAVs that are non-agency, but which are eligible to operateon behalf of the agency, to avoid improper exclusionary notifications,for example.

Needless to say, the platform 202 may be a single platform, amulti-platform, or a partitioned platform. That is, a single platformmay serve a plurality of different users of different types, i.e.,public and private, or firefighters and police. Alternatively, differentplatforms may each be uniquely dedicated to users of different types ina multi-platform embodiment, i.e., hobbyists may use a differentplatform than a government agency, or local police may use a differentplatform than the Department of Homeland Security. Or, a single platformmay be partitioned to serve as a multi-platform without the need formultiple distinct platforms.

In each such embodiment, the platform(s) 202 may coordinate airspacemanagement between operators (and/or UAVs) of varying identifyingcriteria in database(s) 220, as administrated by the platform 202. Forexample, the platform 202 may include, in one or more non-transitorycomputing memories associated therewith, a set of airspace managementrules 236. Thus, when the platform 202 receives an airspace restrictionrequest 102 from, for example, firefighters battling a wildfire innorthern California, the platform 220 may not only certify thefirefighters' ability to make the request, such as using database(s)220, but may also receive particulars from the firefighters regardingthe requested airspace restriction as part of the request 102, and/ormay automatically make “artificially intelligent” (AI) decisions basedon prior particulars, and may apply to those particulars the airspacemanagement rules 236.

By way of non-limiting example, the airspace management rules 236 mayindicate that all operators in a 50 mile radius of the GPS location ofthe requesting device are to be alerted with a notification 112; thatlocal first responders (i.e., state and local police and emergencymedical personnel) are to automatically be notified and authorized tooperate in the airspace because the request 102 came from firefighters;that local first responders are to be so-notified and authorized only aslong as flight plans are submitted to the requesting fire department(i.e., the authorization notification 112 may be automatically withhelduntil the flight plans are provided, by way of non-limiting example);and/or that all private users/UAVs registered as being within 100 milesof the radius are to be notified that the subject area (i.e., the 50mile radius) is a “no fly zone”. The referenced rules 236 may use AI atleast in that, for example, the firefighters may use a private UAVoperator to provide fire suppressant from the air via UAV and, to theextent the fire department indicates this upon making the current or aprior request 102, the platform may use artificial intelligence to“learn” that any rule 236 that precludes the fire suppressant UAVsshould be modified in the future if the fire department makes the sameor a similar restriction request 102.

Thereby, the platform 202 may not only provide flight and operationalauthorization or preclusion notifications 112 to application users, butmay additionally, automatically and/or manually via monitoringpersonnel, provide coordination of UAV airspace management as betweenagencies, different types of first responders, public and privateentities and operators, and so on. This is an advantageous aspect of theembodiments, at least in that the larger the emergency, the greater theneed for an effective air response becomes, and the greater the numberof separate and distinct agencies and respondents that must coordinateinterdepartmentally, perhaps across multiple distinct peer applications224, 226—and this scalable coordination is provided by the disclosedmulti-tenant architecture for platform 202.

Accordingly, airspace coordination may reside in the peering of thedisclosed platform with other air traffic management systems acting aspeer applications 224, 226, and particularly with other air trafficsystems centric to UAV operations. Such systems may include thoseoperated by the FAA, NASA, or other authorized bodies, such as theFlight Information Management System (FIMS), Unmanned Aircraft SystemServices (USS), and AirMap, among others. Therefore, the coordinationprovided by the platform 202 may include deconfliction, such asincluding deconfliction of flight plans, among users of different types(i.e., unmanned-to-manned, or unmanned-to-manned), as well as amongusers of different flight management systems (i.e., the disclosedplatform-to-USS).

Thereby, recordation and/or approval of flight planes, particularly inlight of competing flight plans, may be an aspect provided by theplatform 202 for the applications 101, 101 a, 101 b, 224, 226. That is,in concert with the applications 101, 101 b, 101 c in affected locales(or system wide), and in concert with other flight management servicesand agencies 224, 226, the platform 202 may provide flight planning,authorization of flight plans, and deconfliction for UAV operations.This flight plan entry, approval and deconfliction may all be performedin an automated manner, and in real time, by the platform 202, based oninformation obtained from the application 101 a and such as using theaforementioned air management rules 236 (which rules 236 may include aregulatory regime and/or a hierarchy of priority for users, by way ofexample). Of course, integration of the platform 202 with other airnavigation service providers, such as through their respectiveapplications 224, 226, such as the FAA, and/or the inclusion of aregulatory regime in the airspace management rules 236, may allow forassurance of regulatory compliance for UAV operation in someembodiments. Moreover, integrated providers and/or applications 224, 226may have their own respective databases, such as may includeadministrative certification criteria and flight management databasesand thus, upon integration in the embodiments, these integrateddatabases may act as aspects of database 220 for the disclosed systemsand methods.

It will be understood that the directive in notification 112 thatcertain operators/UAVs are not authorized for the airspace, but ratherare restricted from the airspace, also allows for conformance monitoringand enforcement. This conformance monitoring may be manual, such asvisual and on-site by local personnel, or may be automated, such as insystems that electronically identify UAVs and/or allow automatedpositional tracking of those UAV's based on an identification (such asan electronic or like-remotely readable signature). Needless to say,this conformance monitoring also allows for any of a myriad ofenforcements against violative behavior in real time, including “shootdowns” (literally or electronically, such as by electronic interference)and/or, such as in systems having UAV identification, criminal chargesand/or operator suspensions. Of course, the enforcements generated byplatform 202 may include indications to peer applications 224, 226, suchthat other agencies may be afforded the opportunity to elect anenforcement.

By way of non-limiting example, a “UAV ID” registry is currently beingcontemplating for all UAVs. Such a formalized system may be integratedwith the embodiments, such as via database 220, to allow foridentification of compliant versus non-compliant UAVs, such as based onan electronic or visual signature within the database(s) registry 220.Accordingly, non-compliant UAVs can be confirmed on-site, andenforcement against non-compliant UAVs can be improved in real time.

Further, the disclosed architecture 200 may, as referenced throughout,provide a NIST compliant cyber-secure architecture. This is, of course,highly necessary, as the certification of personnel requesting arestriction must be highly secure for obvious reasons—were the system tolack sufficient security, hackers could restrict airspace for nefariousreasons by emulating an acceptable requester. The architecture may thusprovide for cyber-secure communications using any one or more means ofcommunications, such as via the cloud 242 a, a cellular network 242 b, asatellite network 242 c, and/or a local or wide area wireless network242 d, by way of non-limiting example.

FIGS. 3A-3E illustrate embodiments of a user interface of a firstresponder smartphone application, for communicative association with theplatform 202 discussed throughout, for request and issuance of airspacerestriction notifications 112. In the illustration of FIG. 3A, the userlogs in 302 and, to the extent the user is certified as an acceptablerequester for an airspace restriction, such as per registry database220, this log in 302 communicates to the platform 202 that a restrictionrequest may be authorized.

FIG. 3B illustrates a map 304, such as may be generated based on theapp-associated phone's assessed geographic position. As referenced, thelocus of a request throughout may be assessed based on the current phoneposition of the phone on which the requesting application resides. Ofcourse, the positional information may be provided by any knownmethodology, such as the global positioning system (GPS). Of course,other positioning systems may be employed, such as in place of or inconjunction with GPS, such as to provide redundancy. Such otherpositioning systems may include, by way of non-limiting example,triangulation systems, peer-to-peer positioning systems, a user positionmanual entry, and the like.

FIG. 3C illustrates the opportunity for a user to signify a radius 306,or a “zone”, either around the current phone position or around anotherentered position, in which an airspace restriction is requested inrequest 102. FIG. 3D illustrates entry by the user of the restrictionand/or request details 310. Details 310 may include inclusions orexclusions (such as other agencies) for allowable operation in therestricted zone; a time (start, stop, and/or duration) requested for therestriction; differences from prior requested restrictions (such thatthe AI aspect of the platform may adjust the applicable rules); and soon.

FIG. 3E illustrates an exemplary platform user interface 320. In theillustration, the platform user interface 320 allows for examination andapproval of an airspace restriction request entered into a communicativeapplication. Thus, in the example of FIG. 3E, the criteria selected inthe user interface of the exemplary application of FIGS. 3A-3D areprovided to the platform of FIG. 3E for approval of the requestedrestriction.

As will be appreciated in light of the discussion herein, theapplication 101 may be operating system independent. As such, theapplication 101 should readily allow for interaction, such as throughthe platform 202 or peer-to-peer, between devices having differentoperating systems, such as Apple's iOS and Android, by way ofnon-limiting example. The application 101 may be downloadable by anyone,but usable only upon certification of the user as an authorizedrequestor of airspace restriction, such as using database 220.Alternatively, the application 101 may be downloadable only by anauthorized user, such as by invitation only.

As discussed throughout, the application 101 may communicate with one ormore platforms 202 that allow the application to serve as a “thinclient”. Additionally or alternatively, the applications may communicatepeer-to-peer, including with peer applications 224, 226 forming part ofother traffic management systems, such as those provided by the FAA.Such communication with other traffic management systems may also occurthrough the platform 202, rather than peer-application topeer-application, as will be understood to the skilled artisan.

An agency (or any authorized use entity) may provide one unique accountidentifier for all authorized personnel within the entity, for class ofpersonnel within the entity, or unique accounts for individuals withinthe entity, and may set administrative capabilities for its agency useror users through a unique and secure agency “master” account, by way ofnon-limiting example. The agency account(s) may thus use role-baseaccess control (RBAC), such as corresponded to log-in 302, to allow theagency to administrate users and/or UAVs, such as to activate ordeactivate particular mobile applications 101 a, 101 b, 101 c . . .Needless to say, administrative divisibility may include an individualdomain, or a master domain and subdomains, for each agency or foragencies in a certain category, i.e., all first responders, by way ofnon-limiting example.

In some embodiments, the application 101 may be distributed across manydevices, such as by discrete vertical/agency type as monitored by theplatform 202, and may thus allow for the gathering of data, such as inthe field and via testing, across a great many situations and usertypes. Further, the platform 202 may therefore process and makeavailable, such as to one or more applications 101 a, 101 b and/or tousers of the central platform 202, at least: regular applicationanalytics; use and performance reports based on a myriad of differentfilters; vital statistics and analysis; and/or audits, such as by user,by user type, by agency, etc. In addition to application analysis, datamay be gathered and reported regarding the platform 202 and its metrics,such as: mobile application and platform interface performance metrics;platform and portal performance metrics; global or local use andperformance data; and so on.

More particularly, and as illustrated in the flow diagram of a method400 in FIG. 4, a user may enter a location, a time, a duration, and areason for the airspace restriction, along with other information, andthis information may be received at 402. The user's identity may also bereceived at 402, if not otherwise previously resident in or associatedwith the application. The disclosed application/platform mayautomatically confirm the administrative ability of the requester tomake the request at 404, and that the request complies with predefinedrules, and applicable state and federal rules and laws, at 406.

If compliance and certification are confirmed at 407, a notification iscreated at 408 and distributed to relevant UAV operators at 410, such asbased on the geography, UAV types, rules, permissions, or other factorsassociated with a user's request, in-application identification, and/orother information. Correspondingly, the notification may be distributedover UAVs registered in a certain geography, UAVs having certainaltitude capability, UAVs having certain administrative levelpermissions, or system-wide, by way of non-limiting example.

As referenced throughout, embodiments in accordance with the disclosuremay be implemented in hardware, firmware, software, or any combinationthereof, and thus embodiments may be implemented as code and/orinstructions stored on or using one or more machine-readable media,which may be read and instantiated or otherwise executed by one or moreprocessors. A machine-readable medium may include any mechanism forstoring or transmitting information in a form readable by a machine(such as a computing device or a “virtual machine” running on one ormore computing devices). For example, a machine-readable medium mayinclude any suitable form of volatile or non-volatile memory.

Modules, data structures, and the like are defined and explained hereinfor ease of discussion, and are thus not intended to imply that anyspecific implementation details are required. For example, any of thedescribed modules and/or data structures may be combined or divided intosub-modules, sub-processes or other units of computer code or data asmay be required by a particular design or implementation. Moreover, itis appreciated that exemplary computing systems as described herein aremerely illustrative of computing environments in which the hereindescribed systems and methods may operate, and thus do not limit theimplementation of the herein described systems and methods fromcomputing environments having differing components and configurations.That is to say, the concepts described herein may be implemented invarious computing environments using various components andconfigurations.

In the description herein, numerous specific details, examples, andscenarios are set forth in order to provide a more thoroughunderstanding of the disclosure. It will be appreciated by the skilledartisan, however, that embodiments of the disclosure may be practicedwithout such specific details. Further, such examples and scenarios areprovided for illustration, and are not intended to limit the disclosurein any way.

For example, references in the specification to “an embodiment” indicatethat the embodiment described may include a particular feature,structure, or characteristic, but it should be understood that everyembodiment stemming from the disclosure, whether or not describedherein, may not necessarily include the particular feature, structure,or characteristic. Moreover, it should be appreciated that reference toan “embodiment” throughout is not necessarily referring to the sameembodiment.

In the foregoing detailed description, it may be that various featuresare grouped together in individual embodiments for the purpose ofbrevity in the disclosure. This method of disclosure is not to beinterpreted as reflecting an intention that any subsequently claimedembodiments require more features than are expressly recited.

Further, the descriptions of the disclosure are provided to enable anyperson skilled in the art to make or use the disclosed embodiments.Various modifications to the disclosure will be readily apparent tothose skilled in the art, and it will thus be evident that any generalprinciples defined herein may be applied to other variations withoutdeparting from the spirit or scope of the disclosure. Thus, thedisclosure is not intended to be limited to the examples describedherein, but rather is to be accorded the widest scope consistent withthe principles and novel features disclosed herein.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system for managing airspace for unmannedaerial vehicles (UAVs), comprising: a platform comprising at leastrecords of certified acceptable requestors of restricted use of theairspace for UAVs, a plurality of airspace management rules for UAVs,and a broadcast interface for enabling notifications over at least onetelecommunications network; a plurality of applications, each capable ofreceiving a broadcast one of the notifications and each instantiated bya processor on one of a plurality of corresponded devices fromnon-transitory computing code, wherein the plurality of correspondeddevices comprises at least a plurality of mobile devices; wherein afirst of the plurality of applications is capable of receiving therestricted UAV use request from a requestor for the restricted UAV userequest, and is capable of forwarding the restricted UAV use request andan identification of the requestor to the platform over the at least onetelecommunications network; and wherein, responsive to a certificationof the restricted UAV by the platform based on a comparison of theidentification to the records, the platform authorizes the broadcast inaccordance with the plurality of airspace management rules.
 2. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the notification is broadcast by at least onepeered application in receipt of the authorization.
 3. The system ofclaim 2, wherein the peered application comprises a manned aircraftairspace management application.
 4. The system of claim 1, wherein thenotification comprises an UAV use exclusion.
 5. The system of claim 4,wherein the UAV use exclusion is broadcast only to ones of the pluralityof applications identified as corresponded to restricted UAVs based onthe identification.
 6. The system of claim 1, wherein the notificationis system-wide.
 7. The system of claim 1, wherein the notification isgeographically-based.
 8. The system of claim 1, wherein the notificationis based on the identification.
 9. The system of claim 1, wherein thenotification is UAV type-based.
 10. The system of claim 1, wherein therestricted UAV use request further comprises a UAV flight plan, andwherein the UAV flight plan is additionally forwarded to the platform.11. The system of claim 10, wherein the plurality of airspace managementrules further comprises flight plan approval rules, and wherein the UAVflight plan is approved by the platform according to a comparison of theUAV flight plan to the flight plan approval rules.
 12. The system ofclaim 1, wherein the notification comprises an UAV use grant.
 13. Thesystem of claim 12, wherein the UAV use grant is broadcast only to onesof the plurality of applications identified as corresponded to allowableUAVs based on the identification.
 14. The system of claim 1, wherein thecertification of the certified acceptable requestor corresponds to afirst geography.
 15. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality ofairspace management rules is artificially intelligent based onsubsequent ones of the restricted UAV use requests.
 16. The system ofclaim 1, wherein, upon violation of the notification by at least onenon-conforming UAV, the platform is further capable of comparing therecords to the identification of the non-conforming UAV and broadcastingthe identification of the non-conforming UAV to at least one of theplurality of applications.
 17. The system of claim 16, wherein the atleast one of the plurality of applications that receives theidentification of the non-conforming UAV is corresponded to lawenforcement.
 18. The system of claim 1, wherein the requestor comprisesa first responder.
 19. The system of claim 1, wherein the restricted UAVuse request comprises at least aircraft inclusions and exclusions; arestriction timeframe; and differences from prior restricted UAV userequests.
 20. The system of claim 1, wherein the identification is foran agency that provides role-base access control.
 21. The system ofclaim 1, wherein the requestor is physically present within a geographicarea of the restricted UAV use request.